death in paradise bosses Tony Jordan and Tim Key discussed the prospect of more spin-offs following the premiere of beyond paradise.
The new detective series, which kicked off on Friday (February 24), sees Kris Marshall’s Humphrey Goodman resuming his crime-solving methods in the Devon town of Shipton Abbey, and producers revealed that the fictional universe can be expanded.
“Yes, the potential is there (to do more spin-offs),” Key said. “The ‘universe’ is the right word – you have to believe that these two programs can feed off each other. We’ve been very lucky to work with people in death in paradise who are still friends of ours and friends of the company.
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“I don’t think there’s anyone we wouldn’t look at and ask, ‘Where are they now? What are they doing?'”
“With these things, you have to do them for the right reasons and that’s my big thing,” Jordan added. “If I smelled just a little bit of cynicism about this show, I wouldn’t go near it. I think it would be the same going forward. There has to be real integrity to them.
“You have to say, ‘You know what? There’s a show here — there’s something really cool here.’ We took that ingredient, we planted it, and we got something completely different. It’s in the same genre and the same universe, but it’s another part of the forest and that fascinates me.”
Images of the Red Planet / Todd AnthonyBBC
Related: death in paradise future revealed after the end of series 12
The opening episode of beyond paradise saw many fans turn to social media to give their verdicts.
While many were happy to see Marshall back on our screens, delving into the tragic personal circumstances surrounding Humphrey and Martha’s attempts to expand their family takes a darker tone to the series than they’re used to from the main show.
beyond paradise airs Fridays at 8pm on BBC One. Both death in paradise and its spin-off are available on BBC iPlayer.
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